Scott Sizemore confirms he has an option remaining

According to Chad Jennings, infielder Scott Sizemore confirmed he has a minor league option remaining. That could come into play when Mark Teixeira is activated off the 15-day DL, either tomorrow or in the coming days. Since he was called up to the MLB team, the May 1st (and August 1st) opt-out in Sizemore’s contract goes away.

Sizemore, 29, is 4-for-12 (.333) with two doubles in four games since being called up a few days ago. With Yangervis Solarte tearing the cover off the ball and Dean Anna needed as the backup shortstop, Sizemore sure seems like the obvious candidate to go down to Triple-A whenever Teixeira is ready. If he is, I imagine it won’t be the last time we see him this year. Useful player to have in the organization.

Having an opt-out that is nullified by a temporary call up would seem to be a tactical mistake by an agent.

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

I don’t think they can put anything in the contract that says “you can’t send my client back to AAA even though he has an option.”

Chris

What’s the point of the opt-outs if they could call him up to nullify them and then send him right back down without penalty?

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

Get on the 40-man roster. That’s a big deal. Better insurance, licensing money, more per diem, etc.

AndrewYF

Yep. Plus now he has his last option year burned, which means his chances of being sent to the minors after this year are slimmer.

forensic

In addition, they will likely now use the option which gets it out of the way, putting him closer to the time where he can refuse a trip to the minors on waivers (his 2nd time through) and he’s gained a little bit of MLB service time on top of it.

Plus, if he happened to get hurt tonight and they had to DL him, he’d also get MLB service time during that DL stint, which as he well knows could be a very long time.

Tom

I think there is also the obvious: what was his other option? (in terms of contract type)

As a player would you rather have a MiLB deal with some player opt out dates or an MiLB deal without any? Why wouldn’t you include opt outs? The agent would be making a mistake by not having them in the contract, there is no downside in including them and there is some benefit (from a player perspective).

Short of getting a guaranteed MLB deal, an MiLB deal with opt outs is as good as you can do. I imagine if he had an MLB deal he would likely have taken it.

forensic

For what it’s worth, Joel Sherman said he did have two major league offers, but took the MiLB offer with the Yankees because there were more RHB opportunities at 2B and 3B.

Jorge Steinbrenner

This.

Steve

Couldn’t his option give him an opt-out option every single day, in effect doing this?

RetroRob

I was wondering that too, although seeing Mike’s response makes sense. The opt out might have been designed to get him on the 40 man roster, not guarantee a full season on the MLB club.

W.B. Mason Williams

New York Yankees 2015 Starting Infield

1B Mark Teixeira
2B Yangervis Solarte
SS Dean Anna
3B Scott Sizemore

What a strange, strange thought.

AndrewYF

They’ll sign or trade for a shortstop. 0% chance Dean Anna is a planned-for starter.

RetroRob

Yup. Beyond Tex, none of those guys will be starting, although they could and probably will be still with the organization. They could sign Headley for third, maybe even Hardy for SS (yuck, but he’s a fine fielder with some pop), or Drew, and then they could package some of their minor league talent for a 2B’man. Maybe even a top prospect for a top prospect trade with Sanchez leaving for a 2B’man. Those type of deals almost never happen, but not impossible. If that guy is a good fielder, suddenly they’d have an strong defensive infield.

Something will be done about that infield for 2015.

forensic

You know I have to be ‘that’ guy:

A-Rod will be at 3B!

RetroRob

You might be right about A-Rod. I’m not part of the group that is sure the Yankees will cut him. $60MM is a bitter pill to swallow, not to mention the $27.5MM AAV will remain through 2017 for luxury tax purposes. Add in that as a love him or hate him player, he creates interest, which will lead to some additional revenue. That’s a very minor point that won’t be part of the decision process, but adding it all up is enough to make Hal and his financial geekdom gag when he realizes on top of all those losses, he’s cutting a potential 3B’man that he’ll still need to spend money and replace.

Really, A-Rod returning was a lock until he then decided to sue the Yankees and get into a public battle of words against his employer. He pretty much have done everything else and he would have been back. That’s why I thought if he really wants to ever play MLB again, he never should have attacked the Yankees. How much that bothers them will determine if he ever swings a bat in the majors. Because if they cut him, I’m not sure any team will sign him anymore than they did when Bonds was available. Now that was a slightly different situation, but Bonds was also still very dangerous as a hitter. The same can not be said for A-Rod.

I’ll be interesting to see what they do. I don’t think that today they know themselves.

A 39 year old A-Rod in the lineup this time next year will still be a more dangerous force with the bat than a lot of third basemen. Whether he’s part time, a platoon, a power bat off the bench – it adds some depth and power to the lineup with another guy who on his day can take any pitcher in the world yard.

RetroRob

…and that’s why I’m not part of the A-Rod-is-gone crowd. With all the money it will cost the Yankees to just cut him, and the fact they will need to replace him on the roster, it makes perfect sense to see what he has. Even if he only plays 3B part time, sharing with say Johnson, DHing other games, he has value.

He certainly did not look finished when he came up last year, in some ways showing more power than he had the last couple of years. Not shocking since his hip rotation would have been helped by the surgery. He finished poorly only after the leg muscle pulls.

Yet another lost year, he turns 40 in July 2015. I wouldn’t expect much, but we just won’t know until he’s out there, and that’s what Hal (and it will be his choice) has to see. Frankly, if he can hit .270 with 20 HRs he should be a keeper.

Yet he’s A-Rod, and the Yankees have to be pissed.

Who knows.

ALZ

Arod missed his age 39 season too, and looks fine so far. Both were elite players, not insane to think Arod could return. He is better than Brian Roberts and he is still costing $2MM. If he can hit .260/.340/.420 like last year I’d be content with that. That’s way better than soriano, it’b better than KJ, B-Roberts, etc.

ALZ

Honestly I dont know why Mike thinks they will cut him. It’s lots of money, and as he showed last year he can still be decent. It’s no different than jeter missing, with both them missing their age 39 season, except that they gave Jeter a new contract, and arod is already a sunk cost. He is a solid 2-3 WAR player in the time he plays, which would be more like 3-4 WAR if he could be healthy the season.

He won’t be worth his contract, but that is irrelevant. He can easily get $6MM if he healthy from hr bonus, but after that he would have to be really healthy and productive to get the 2nd one. So he will get esentially $2MM a year in new money if he sucks, and potential for more. If your willing to give Brian Freakin Roberts that money, why wouldn’t you give Arod that?

And I’m sorry, I know many people happy to have him back, but a-rod is a way better hitter than Soriano. Next 2 years have Arod and Beltran splitting the DH. Is just dumb to cut that much money, and production because you don’t like that player.

Only scenario it makes sense to cut him is if Selig allowed them to drop his salary from luxury tax if they waive him. Otherwise, even if he gets injured they can recoup insurance money.

RetroRob

That’s good news. Allows the team to maintain its depth. He’ll be needed. Roberts will get injured again, or if he continues to hit south of .200 might be DFA’d. Too early now.

forensic

Cool, that basically guarantees that he’ll be the one sent down tonight/tomorrow morning.

Mantle28

Is he under team control beyond this year?

forensic

Yes, this technically would’ve been his first arb year, he has two years of arb left. They’ll just have to keep him on the 25-man roster since he’ll be out of options (assuming he’s sent down sometime this season).

Preston

Yes, I believe he has three years of arb left. May only be two.

John Duci

Why not send down Anna. Sizemore seems a lot better with the bat already.

1B- Tex
2B- KJ/Roberts
SS- Jeter/Solarte
3B-Solarte/Sizemore

Get rid of Ryan and Anna

John Duci

It sucks that Ryan is coming back honestly he sucks and is going to take up a spot

Jorge Steinbrenner

Hardly.

forensic

Anna is the only one with any real experience at SS. He hass a big advantage over the others in that way. It’s not like 1B where you can just stick someone who’s never played there and sort of get away with it.

Also, Ryan isn’t going anywhere. They didn’t sign him to that contract just to release him less than a month into it.

(I’m not really sure why they DID sign him to that contract, I just know they didn’t do it so they could release him after a month).

Preston

Because Anna is a much better defensive SS than Solarte.

John Duci

Solarte looks really good on D at all the infield positions I’m pretty sure the way his season is going he would be nasty at Short

Preston

Well Joe hasn’t seen fit to run him out there yet. So apparently he doesn’t agree.

ALZ

SS is much more important than the other positions. He really hasn’t been that great defensively. At 2B he has looked fine, but there have been several plays at 3B where a regular 3B would make the play.

Bill

I’m with you on sending Anna down. There are a lot of left handed starters on the upcoming schedule. Solarte could play SS one day a week if needed. I mean defensively how much different would it be from Jeter out there? Solarte looked fine at SS in spring.

I don’t see it happening though I think Joe will keep Anna’s defense and use Solarte and Roberts against lefties with Kelly Johnson also in the mix.

An argument could be made either way, but I like Sizemore’s bat against left handed pitching more than I like Roberts’. It also gives you the option to DH Jeter against a lefty or two and still keep a RH infield with Solarte at SS, Sizemore at 3B, Roberts at 2B, and Tex at 1B.

BigBlueAL

How about carrying only 6 relievers and keeping Sizemore?? Crazy thought I know. Im amazed how virtually all MLB teams carry 12 pitchers now, so dumb. 11 pitchers should be more than enough.

forensic

I could certainly see some teams who would be better served with 6 relievers than 7, but I don’t think the Yankees are one of them.

Pineda and Kuroda have been given pretty strict 100 pitch limits, which will quite possibly last all season. Nova is still somewhat of a crapshoot every 5th day. CC can still sometimes give innings, but a quicker hook wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Tanaka might be their most reliable, but even with him he may have his high PC days or have days where they want to dial it back a little and save him an inning here and there.

If they had a more reliable/younger group of position players, I could’ve actually seen them going with 8 relievers. I think 7 is a necessity right now, and a necessity that I don’t believe needs to include multiple lefties (especially LOOGY’s, though they’ve solved part of that for now).

Chip Rodriguez

The next series is at Fenway. Even if the Sox bats are a bit cooler than normal, it’s a hitter’s park and a team that tries to grind down pitchers.

A small bullpen at Fenway is a bad, bad idea.

BigBlueAL

How is 6 relievers a small bullpen?? Not too long ago it was common for teams to carry 11 pitchers. All of a sudden 12 pitchers is normal. I read an article on opening day talking about this and asking why teams are now carrying 12 pitchers. Alot of time the 12th pitcher goes a couple of weeks in between appearances.

ALZ

Really no need for more than 4 position players on your bench if your in the AL. That gives you 2 catchers, 5 outfielders (one of who is DH) and 6 infielders. Is really enough ab’s for 7 infielders on the roster? If one gets hurt then use the dl.